The nine states making up Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) have not remitted their share of ecological funds to the coffers of the commission in the past 17 years, StraightNews has learnt.
Mr. Uwem Udoma, the Special Assistant to the Managing Director, Niger Delta Development Commission on General Duties, who stated this in an interview with Atlantic 140.5 FM, Uyo, noted “we have not been lucky to get funding from states in all the nine states.
The challenge is not from the state governments, but the challenge is that we don’t have a sitting representative in the Federation Allocation committee at the federal, so that when money is being disbursed to the states, you cannot go back to get funds from the state.”
Udoma explained that ”Funds that come from federal and state governments are the ecological funds. For example, every state that earns money from the ecological funds is supposed to send 50 per cent of that sum to NDDC, while the sum total of all the NDDC states will be sent to the federal government.
For instance, if all the states received N1 billion and they are sending N500 million to NDDC, federal government’s contribution will be N250 million, that is 50 per cent contribution from the states.”
He announced that the Managing Director of NDDC, Mr. Nsima Ekere is doing everything possible to make sure “we have an interface with the Accountant-General of the federation, Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, so that they can give us a seat in the federal allocation committee.”
According to him, “When states are picking their ecological funds, NDDC should be able to pick 50 per cent of whatever goes to each state, then the third funding which keeps NDDC going is the amount that comes from oil companies- Exxon Mobil, Shell, Totalfina- all of them contribute three per cent of their budget in a whole year to NDDC. If Shell Petroleum and Development Company (SPDC) have a budget of $1 billion for a year, they are going to send $30 million to NDDC as their contribution.”
Udoma stated “The gas companies had probation of 15 years- they were not allowed to pay taxes and did not contribute, but from 2016 we are going to collect three per cent from all the gas companies in Nigeria, that is how we will get our funding. NDDC has been underfunded for so many years. We have not been able to meet our budget funding because the funding cannot match the capital projects that we have.”
